Lotus Outreach International aims to empower women and children living in poverty through access to education, training, and care. Cambodia is a country still recovering from 50 years of war and genocide. Girls and young women face immense challenges, especially those living in rural poverty. It is rare that young women in Cambodia reach high school and even rarer that they obtain university degrees (5%).

The Catalyst programme, established in 2010, is an extension of the Girls Access to Education (GATE) scholarship support for elementary and high school scholars. Catalyst supports the further education of young Cambodian GATE graduates, by offering them educational scholarships and assistance so that they can finish university level education or training and gain employment. Each Catalyst scholar receives material support in the form of tuition fees, monthly stipends, food aid, medical services and communal housing facilities. The programme also provides seminars and mentoring with an emphasis on leadership, professional development, health, social, and gender issues.

Following on from the successful funding programme with the ALMT in 2017, this project is funding scholarships for the remaining 11 young women previously supported by the ALMT on the Catalyst programme ensuring that they can complete their university degrees. The project is:
• Increasing education and social skills for young women on the Catalyst programme.
• Improving life and job opportunities and economic well-being for young women and their communities in Cambodia
• Reducing exploitation of young women enrolled on the programme and create change makers in society.
• Improving gender equality for Catalyst students as well as for their friends, families and siblings.